Mohican’s Miscellaneous Meanderings – 25 February in the Year of Our Lorde 2016

Disclaimer – There may or may not be a continued steady occurrence of these Miscellaneous Meanderings. These Meanderings are my Meandering view of the world where I sit, and does not reflect the views of the host site. I will often touch on subjects of religion, politics and culture and their relationships to each other from my viewpoint. My viewpoint may (or will) run counter to whatever nonsense is espoused by the unholy Du-inity- the (R)epublican and (D)emocrat establishments. I will make every effort to be thoughtful, will often look at things from multiple viewpoints, but my judgements and opinions be based according to “my lights”. I acknowledge that although I make no allegiance to either major U.S. political party that I will often be viewed as a Bible Thumping Cowboy Republican. Please note that typical horseshit statements such as “that’s why politics can’t be discussed on the internet” and “never discuss religion and politics in public” will be dismissed summarily as so much herpapaderp. – Disclaimer over

Prior to commentary: I was extremely busy at the start of February, and forgot to make my annual February avatar switch. I have corrected this, and all my fellow Bass Reeves fans can take heart in the fact that I will leave this avatar in place into March.

A friend of mine made a comment that has really captured my attention.

In a functional society you already know the damn rules.

This is worth examining in several ways. And little Jimmy Madison warned us about this in Federalist #62: (my friend was much more succinct and much less verbose)

“The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?

If the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent….

Civil Forfeiture laws spring to mind, and banking/cash transfer laws that were ushered in with the Federal “War on Drugs”. The “Patriot Act” included legislation that bolstered monitoring of cash transfers. Because in the minds of the Feds only drug dealers and terrorist carry and spend “that much cash”. Bank Secrecy Act compliance requires that any cash $10,000 transaction must be reported to the IRS. If cash payments or deposits that equal or exceed $10,000 are made in a year, they must be reported to the IRS.

Do you want to Ping the radar? Save $100 every week, and in say three years go pay cash for an “economy car”. You could get a visit by a revenuer…..

Or you could be that kind of anarchist that perpetrates unlicensed vegetable sales. (Yeah, you have a tent or booth at a Farmer’s Market) You’re kinda old school, and refuse to have a smart phone, let alone a credit card scanner for your smart phone. You sell your unlicensed vegetables on a cash only basis. Inflation has affected prices to a point that you could be depositing your $10,000. Or you might have weekly deposits of $1,000. Even without hitting the $10,000 threshold you could raise the red flag, and get accused of trying to “hide” money by staying under $10,000.

Your ill-gotten gains from a summer of illicit vegetable sales could be confiscated.

Yup, it happens. And people that have been hit with this might not have been aware of these “laws” before breaking them. What was that? If the laws become so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent….

And the discovery that the cash wasn’t from a drug deal, or a terrorist arms purchase does not always help the person losing the money. This has been enough of an issue over the last several years that I know of people that have stopped selling at farmers markets.

When the laws become so voluminous……Innocent people break the law…..and then society stops functioning in an even manner…..

__________________If you surrender a civilization to avoid social disapproval, you should know that all of history will curse you for your cowardliness - Alice Teller

If John of Patmos would browse the internet today for half an hour, I don't know if the Book of Revelations would be entirely different or entirely the same.